Two leading Northern Ireland healthcare businesses unite to create new portal

Two of Northern Ireland’s leading healthcare companies have united to pioneer a new online platform.

Independent healthcare company, Kingsbridge Healthcare Group (KHG) and Duality Healthcare, Northern Ireland’s largest primary care provider have partnered to offer the new shared care portal.

Developed by KHG, the platform will accelerate speed of access to secondary care for Duality Healthcare patients through the Kingsbridge Refer portal.

Initially designed to shorten lead times on referrals for cataract treatments from opticians, it has now been expanded to offer the same access to primary care referrers and their patients for outpatient appointments across Duality Healthcare’s network of clinics and virtual care service in Northern Ireland. The online booking facility will ensure Duality Healthcare can make a live, on-the-day, confirmed outpatient booking for their patients.

Fiona Dowds, head of group sales and business development with Kingsbridge Healthcare Group explained: “As a healthcare provider our aim is to provide the best medical treatment in the timeliest manner and the development and implementation of cutting-edge technology is the key to ensuring that we succeed. Our ability to offer direct referrals and share patient information on a real time basis to Duality’s patients, provides a seamless and paperless information pathway for treatments and medical records, which will be integrated directly with the patient management systems at both the Kingsbridge Belfast and North West hospitals, ensuring a speedier process overall with shorter lead times.

“Following the huge success of the system among the opticians caring for patients requiring eye treatments where we have seen a 45% increase in consultations and an 83% increase in procedures over the past 12 months, the potential to widen the scope of the platform to additional clinicians was the obvious next stage.

“With Kingsbridge Refer, a dedicated administration team processes referral requests on the day of submission, using modern data encryption techniques, including multi factor authentication to ensure that data is stored and processed in the most secure manner,” says Fiona.

John McEvoy, executive chairman with Duality Healthcare, explained: “Following a primary diagnosis, it is vital that patients can quickly access clinical specialists to investigate their options in terms of treatment. Our commitment to providing a flexible and speedy healthcare service resonates with the ethos of Kingsbridge and we are confident that this referral option will greatly benefit the many patients we welcome to our clinics and virtual care service.

“Post referral and follow-on care is an equally important element of the overall patient journey and Kingsbridge Refer will ensure this is seamless for Duality’s patients. The whole process is accompanied by an email notification system so there is no need to continually check the portal for updates. The Follow-Up referral functionality for patient aftercare is directly linked to the original referral from a Duality clinician, offering up to the minute updates on the patient journey, allowing referrers around-the-clock access to any documentation or reports on their patient’s profile for a seamless, joined up and stress-free process for patients.

“Having 24-hour access to the most accurate and up to date patient information on appointments, treatments, and procedures at the touch of a button is invaluable to our clinicians and patients. With our partnership with Kingsbridge and the Kingsbridge Refer portal, we have complete confidence that we are providing a comprehensive and consistent primary care service to every person who chooses to use Duality Healthcare.”